Audio input to 7-band display

Hey All,

I'm building an audio project which I'm considering adding a 7-band display to, and I'd like to understand what my options are. I know I can use a MESEQ7 and an Arduino to simplify things, but I'm a tinkerer and a learner and I'd like to understand how to build a circuit to simulate this. 

What I'd like is something like a 7-band display built out of WS2812 LED pixels, with a falling peak pixel...I'm sure you've seen plenty of them on YouTube.

I have a simple circuit right now that does what I want, but for a single led strip of  pixels. I'm taking input from an electrec mic amplified with a mosfet and a few other components, and that seems to work fine, but I'm wondering how I would split an audio source into multiple "streams"(?)

 Thanks for any help.

Paul